FREEPORT — Overtime pay for deputies to provide security for what have been marathon County Board meetings is draining cash from Stephenson County’s coffers.

The meetings, including one in January that ran for more than seven hours, have put the gridlock at center stage.

Board members, typically led by a contingent dubbed the “Crazy 8,” routinely bicker over hot-button issues, such as concealed-carry legislation and spending on a roundabout.

Even seemingly mundane items like the cost of a replacement canopy over the entrance to the county nursing home have fueled bitter arguments that keep meetings churning until the midnight hour.

The Sheriff’s Department allocated $11,000 this year for overtime pay for courthouse security, which includes two deputies at every County Board meeting; the money ran out in April. The board approved an additional $11,000 in May. But at this rate, Sheriff David Snyders said, the extra cash might not last through Nov. 30, when the county’s fiscal year ends.

The dysfunction is enough to discourage Ken Bohnsack, a Freeport resident who often attends board meetings to see how his elected officials are serving him.

“It’s so incredible,” he said. “It’s hard to try and find the words to describe it. When they are repeating things again and again when a point has already been made. It’s a never-ending issue.”

Snyders said the county has never drained its overtime allocation for courthouse security so quickly. “If we continue with these excessively long meetings, I’m not sure if the second $11,000 will do it.“In this specific circumstance, the public is not being served.”

Stephenson County Administrator John Light said the $11,000 approved in May was taken from the contingency fund, essentially leaving less cash on hand for an emergency or unanticipated expense.

“The cost is not direct, but there is a cost,” he said.

Board Chairman Bill Hadley said the long meetings are unnecessary and a disservice to the public.

“A lot of people have to work the next day,” he said. “They don’t like to stay up late to watch on TV or come to the meeting. The longer the meetings go, the more tired board members get also. It’s tougher to make good decisions.”

The board is governed by rules that limit the time for debating an issue, give a 10-minute limit for a member to speak on a given issue, and allow board members to speak no more than twice on an issue. Hadley hasn’t enforced those rules, but he plans to do so.

“We have board members that say ‘we want to save money,’ but what we need to look at is how long these meetings are going and stop the filibustering that goes on with different issues,” he said. “We need to shorten these meeting times up so that we don’t have to pay a lot of overtime to the deputies.”

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But Christopher Clukey, who represents District F, says some lengthy meetings were caused by items on the agenda that shouldn’t have been there. He foresees shorter meetings.

“Hadley gets paid to run the meetings,” he said. “If we’re running long, a certain amount of that is in his ballpark. I’m not blaming him because some of that was circumstances or other stuff that came up. But it’s his job to make the meetings run in a timely manner.”